A few weeks ago, when queuing up for lunch at an event of which I was the MC, I found myself in conversation with a man who’s spent the last five decades in the outsourcing world. He told me that back when he started, everything was planned. Thoroughly. Weeks—sometimes months—of careful documentation, process refinement, approval layers. Then execution, with precision.
It worked. Back then.
Business cycles were longer. Predictability was possible. You could afford to spend six months preparing for a launch, because not much changed in between. If you got the plan right, you were set.
That version of business doesn’t exist anymore.
Today, the world moves too fast. Disruption isn’t an outlier—it’s the operating system. And those who spend too long trying to perfect a plan will often find themselves outpaced by those who didn’t wait.
It’s not that planning is irrelevant. But the idea that success is born from getting everything “right” before taking action—that’s the myth we need to let go of.
What matters more now is experimentation.
Small changes. Fast learning. The humility to be wrong and the agility to adjust.
This shift—from planning to experimenting—is not just tactical. It’s a mindset. It’s the difference between asking, ‘What’s the perfect answer?’ and asking, ‘What might work next?’
Too many organisations still operate with planning as the safety net. They plan to avoid failure. But planning doesn’t prevent failure—it just delays the moment you find out what doesn’t work.
Redefining planning
Experimentation, on the other hand, embraces that moment early—on purpose. It gives (and gets) you real-world feedback. It keeps you close to your customer. It tells you, plainly, whether you’re solving the right problem or just polishing a beautifully irrelevant idea.
And the wonder of experimentation is that it scales. You don’t need a full product to launch something. You need a hunch and a willingness to test it. You need people curious enough to learn, not just committed to being right.
Some of the most resilient companies today didn’t grow through master plans. They grew by trying, adapting, listening, and learning. They moved before they were ready—not recklessly, but with intent.
Planning, in this environment, must be redefined. Not as the search for certainty, but as a frame for action. It sets direction, not destination. It guides the experiment—it doesn’t replace it.
The gentleman I spoke to smiled when I shared this view. He didn’t push back. Instead, he paused, then said: ‘That’s probably why so many of the old players didn’t make it.’
And he’s right.
Photo: Dreamstime.
